In the past I never have been proud of my voice in my life. My voice is quite low, soft and most of time not loud enough to get people to hear from a distance. Not that I am a shy person, it’s just that my lung’s capacity to hold air is quite limited. I have known it since I was 9 years old after I’ve done my very first vital capacity test in a physical education class But you know what? Everything has two sides. It all depends on how you use your advantages and disadvantages.

Lately I had some clients ringing in and speaking really fast and emotionally as if they were going to collapse anytime over the phone. At the beginning of the conversation, they were mad, anxious. Then no matter how agitated they sounded like, I tried to slow my speech down and ask them questions in a calm way. Amazingly I found that they slowed down and became calm as well. You know what, at the end of the talking, they seemed peaceful, settled, and lots of them even called me “Sweetheart”. It doesn’t seem like I always fixed their problems. There must be something in the conversation sooths them and I asked myself what really changed their attitude? and why did this happen?

Now it has occurred to me that people’s voice can be a very powerful tool to affect other people and take a positive role on influencing the communication and directing the conversation to the right path. You might have some other opinions in regard to this, but my key is just simple as this: slow down, be calm and ask right questions as much as you can, instead of making any statement. I found it very effective.